LAUREN

 

By the time my birthday arrived, the hickey had faded and was barely noticeable under a thin cover of concealer. Gabe was coming to pick me up and I was ready and waiting when the doorbell rang. He was perfectly on time. I swung the door open and was greeted by wide arms and a smiling face.

“Happy Birthday, Aunty L!”

“Madi!” I said, surprised as my sixteen year old niece wrapped her arms around me. Behind her, my mother, father, sister and brother-in-law stared back at me. Mother held a large box in her arms while Dad stood dutifully beside her, looking at the overgrown ivy climbing up the wall of my house. My sister and her husband, Alistair, stood arm in arm, Morgan smiling apologetically while Alistair stared down at the ground. 

“You always come home for your birthday so, when you called us and said you couldn’t, we knew we had to come. Happy Birthday, darling.” Mother bustled past me and walked into the lounge, staring at every corner of the house and frowning. “Where’s your kitchen? I need a cup of tea.”

Madison, who still had her arms wrapped around my waist tightly, grinned. She was a pretty girl, with a wide, innocent smile. Her eyes were hazel, touching on the golden side, the same shade as her hair. Across her cheeks was just the lightest dusting of freckles. She looked like the pastel version of her mother. Water colour to Morgan’s oil canvas. “Happy Birthday, Aunty L.” She squeezed me tight before letting go.

Morgan strode past, her arms burdened with bags, while Alistair stood in the doorway. “Happy Birthday, L,” she said wryly. “Surprise.”

“Where’s your kitchen, Lauren? All I can seem to find are hallways and living areas.” Mother yelled from down the hall.

“This way, Mother,” I yelled back to her while I ushered Morgan through to the kitchen and told Alistair to stop standing in the doorway and come in.   

“Oh,” Mother said when she found us again. She looked around the room disapprovingly. “Your kitchen is part of your second living area. How quaint.”

“It’s called open plan living,” Morgan said, dumping her bags and collapsing onto the couch. “Al, come grab these and put them in a room somewhere.” She turned to me. “Which room, L?”

“Must you do that, Morgan? Her name is Lauren, not L. And how do you not find it confusing to call both your husband and your sister by the same name?”

Morgan rolled her eyes. “They are not the same.”

“L and Al?” My mother blinked and held her eyebrows high, waiting for Morgan’s response.

Unfortunately, my mother and I looked undoubtedly similar. All my life, people told me I was the spitting image of her. Morgan took after Dad. Open face, dark eyes and deadly straight hair, only, Dad didn’t have his anymore.

“It’s perfectly clear in my mind,” my sister replied.

“Well, we don’t live in your mind, Morgan. We live out here in the world where L and Al sound exactly the same.”

Morgan rolled her head in my direction. “Lauren,” she said sarcastically sweetly. “Which room are we staying in?”

My mind went blank. I stared around the small room, now crowded with people and I couldn’t think of one thing to say.

Then the doorbell rang.

Gabe opened the door before I could get to it, and walked in carrying a single, white lily. He grinned divinely when he saw me, and it wasn’t until he was halfway across the room that he noticed the others. He stopped and held the flower out, clearing his throat. “Ah, Happy Birthday.”

“Who is this, Lauren?” Mother said, coming up behind me and staring at Gabe and his outstretched lily.

I stepped forward and took it from him. “Thank you.” I smiled and tried to express my panic in one desperate look before turning to my mother. “This is Gabe. I work with him and I was giving him a ride out to Peta’s tonight. She invited us over for a sort of birthday-work thing.”

“Does he know that a white lily is a symbol of death?”

Gabe looked at me, slightly panicked.

“I love it,” I assured him.

“I thought we were going out for dinner?” My father said, walking through the door. He must have finished his inspection of the outside of my house. “You said we were going out, Clementine.”

Gabe looked at me and mouthed, “Clementine? As in, ‘Oh my darlin’?”

“Of course we’re going out for dinner,” Mother said. “You can just call Peta and tell her to meet us at the restaurant. What’s that one you wanted to go to Morgan?”

During the conversation that ensued over which restaurant we should go to, Gabe sidled over to me. “A bit of a surprise, huh?”

Madison took the opportunity to stroll over to Gabe and smiled widely. “Hi. I’m Madison.” She held out her hand and smiled shyly when Gabe shook it. “Do you work with Aunty L in real estate?” Her eyes skittered excitedly over him and I had to stop myself from scolding her.

I left Gabe fixated in her gaze and went to call Peta from behind closed doors. “My mother is here,” I said as soon as she answered the phone. “No, correction. My mother, and father, sister, brother in law, and niece are here.”

“Fuck,” she muttered.

“Yes, f-word,” I whispered.

“You can say it, you know.”

“Not when my mother is within earshot, I can’t. Gabe just arrived. They think we were going to have some work function slash birthday dinner at your house and they’re insisting you come out to dinner with us at a restaurant instead. Please say you’ll come.”

“Of course we’ll come,” Peta said, almost annoyed, then she laughed. “I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”

“There are no sheets on any of the spare beds,” I announced when I walked back in.

“We will worry about that later,” my mother said. “Did you call Peta? Will she just meet us there? I’m starving. We should get going, don’t you think?”

“It’s only five thirty,” Morgan said.

“People eat at five thirty,” Mother replied.

“We haven’t even booked,” Morgan said.

“Nonsense. You don’t need to book.” Mother waved her hands in Morgan’s direction. “We’ll be fine.” She twisted on her heels and looked at Gabe. “You needed a ride, didn’t you, young man?”

Gabe stood up from where he was perched on the arm of the couch. “Yes, thank you. I do.”

Mother narrowed her eyes at him a fraction and looked over to where Madi was gazing at him wide-eyed. “Why exactly are you here again?”

“He’s a workmate,” I said, stepping between them. “And a friend of mine.” I touched my hands gently to her shoulders and steered her towards the door. “I’m starving too. Let’s just go.”

After Dad went to the bathroom, Morgan had to go. And then Madi wanted to change her outfit. Then Mother thought it best to put on her ‘going out shoes’ and finally we were ready to leave for the restaurant. The family all travelled down together and were able to fit into Dad’s car, which left Gabe and I free to ride in my car. Madi insisted on going with us. Gabe’s jeep sat parked on the side of the road as we left.

“Do you like working in the coffee shop, Aunty L?” Madi asked, sitting forward and poking her head through the gap in the seats.

“Yes, it’s fine,” I replied.

“Gabe said he likes it, didn’t you, Gabe?” She rested her hand on his shoulder and Gabe couldn’t help but grin at my expression.

“Yes, I like it fine, Madison.” He tried to hold in his smile. 

“Though you want to study architecture?”

“Yeah, hopefully, next year.”

“I’ll be done with high school in a couple of years. I’m not quite sure what I’m going to study after that yet though. Mum thinks I should get into early childhood education. She thinks I’d be good at it, but I’m not sure if I could handle the bratty ones. The cute ones would be fine, but looking after the ones that cried all the time, or had one of those little painfully high voices, nope. I just couldn’t do it.” She sat back and looked out the window for a few moments before leaning forward again. “So you don’t have your license yet, or do you not have a car?” she asked Gabe.

Gabe looked confused.

“Why did you need a ride?” she clarified.

“Oh,” he said. “No license, I guess.”

“So you must live pretty close if you walked over to Aunty L’s?”

“Not too far from Aunty L, no.” His eyes slid over to me as he drew out the word aunty.

“I might come visit you. We’re down for a few days.”

“You are?” I asked, my heart dropping to my stomach.

“I’ve got time off school and all. Gran is worried about you, Aunty L. She says that you’re not telling her everything and that you haven’t called in ages. She said every time she gets you on the phone you’re too busy to talk.”

“Do you listen to Gran every time she wants to talk?” I asked her.

She laughed. “Fuck no.”

“Madison! Language,” I warned. “What would your mother say?”

“She isn’t here.” Grinning, she looked over to Gabe. “I’m sixteen. I’m old enough to swear. What about you? How old are you?”

Gabe swallowed before he answered and his smile dropped just a fraction. “Twenty-one.”

Madison’s eyes lit up. “There’s only five years between us.”

I learnt a lot about my niece in that short trip. Mainly, that she wasn’t as innocent as she looked. And, although she still had a girlish appeal, she certainly didn’t consider herself to be young anymore. Gabe had a difficult time controlling his amusement as she gushed over him. He didn’t exactly encourage it, but he certainly found it entertaining watching me squirm as Madi recklessly flirted with him. I was grateful when we pulled up at the restaurant and exited the car.

Peta and Shrek were already waiting at the table. There were hugs and greetings, then, as we sat down, it fell silent. Gabe sat to my right, Madison next to him and Morgan on my left.

“So is Derek meeting us here?” Mother asked.

Colour rose to my cheeks. I never made the phone call to my mother, the one to tell her I was no longer with Derek. As far as she was concerned, Derek and I were still giving things another chance. I guess her phone calls to him must have stopped as I doubted Derek would have kept it a secret. Gabe ran his hand across my thigh and I tensed. “No, he won’t. Derek and I are no longer together.”

“You didn’t give it very long,” Mother scoffed as the waiter came over. She scowled at me as she ordered her sparkling water. “Did you even try?” she hissed in my direction.

“Of course I tried. It just didn’t work out.”

Mother folded her arms. “Marriage isn’t something you just toss aside when it gets hard, Lauren. It was a vow you made before God, before your family and your friends. I hardly see what excuse you can give that warrants giving up on that.”

“We weren’t married, Mother.”

“You were in the eyes of God.”

“He was a fucking cheating bastard,” Gabe growled. I reached over and gripped his thigh, urging him to be quiet.

Mother looked at Gabe and blinked slowly. “Mind your words, young man,” she warned.

“Surely not.” Dad spoke up for the first time since we got to the restaurant. “He didn’t, did he, Lauren?”

“I’d really rather not talk about this here.” I picked up my wine the waiter had just delivered and drunk deeply, meeting Peta’s eyes over the rim of the glass.

“So, Morgan,” Peta said loudly. “How are the music lessons going? You’ll have quite the number of students now, I imagine?”

Morgan picked up on Peta’s distraction techniques and happily chatted away, discussing her students and their talent, or in some cases, lack of talent.

“It’s great that you’ve found something you love doing,” Peta said.

“Well, someone needs to pay the bills.” Morgan pointedly looked over at Alistair who stared down at his hands resting in his lap.

“Morgan dear, that is no way to speak about your husband,” Mother admonished.

“Well, there’s one simple way to stop me.” She raised her eyebrows and glared at Alistair again, but he wouldn't meet her gaze, so she sighed loudly and took a sip of her lemonade.

“Is your name short for Gabriel?” Madi piped up, her attention to Gabe undeterred by her mother’s glare.

Gabe swallowed the mouthful of beer he had taken. “Ah, no.” He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “It’s short for Gable.”

“Gable?” Madison and I said at the same time. “As in, Anne of Green?” I added, trying to hide my laughter.

“Gable,” Gabe repeated. He turned to me. “As in Clark. And yes, my brother’s name was Clark. My mother had an addiction to Gone with the Wind.”

“What’s that?” Madison asked as I struggled to contain my smile.

“A movie you shouldn’t be watching,” Mother admonished.

“So,” Gabe said, changing the subject. “Alistair, what do you do for a living?”

“Oh, he tinkers with computers all day, but as for making a living, that’s up to me,” Morgan answered for him.

Peta and Shrek shared a knowing look between them while Alistair ignored Morgan and looked over to Gabe. “I’m developing a new app. Hopefully it will revolutionise the need to carry around countless reward cards, but it’s taking a while to sort out the glitches.”

“A while? Try an entire year,” Morgan said dryly.

“Sounds interesting,” Gabe said as the waiter came to take our food orders.

“It is interesting, isn’t it, Daddy?” Madison piped up once the waiter left. “He’s just got to figure out how to process the cards, some work off a bar code, others work off a magnetic strip. Daddy just needs to figure out how to convey the correct information most efficiently and compatibly.”

Alistair smiled at his daughter.

“Gabe is going to be an architect.” Madison smiled her wide smile at Gabe.

“Is that right?” Alistair said, leaning over the table. Soon, all the men at the table were involved in a lively discussion regarding the building industry and the costs it took to construct a house.

I caught Peta staring at Gabe during the evening, a puzzled look on her face as if she really couldn’t quite grasp what he was doing here.

“It’s strange,” she said when I followed her to the bathroom. “I’m trying, but I just can’t see him with you.”

“Well having my entire family here sure isn’t helping matters any,” I grumbled. “Mother keeps asking me if the rest of my workmates are going to turn up too. And Morgan, well she knows something’s up because she keeps looking at me with this stupid grin on her face. I don’t think she’s clicked that it has anything to do with Gabe though. She’s too busy scowling every time Madi talks to him.”

Peta laughed and flattened herself against the wall to let a lady pass. “She’s sure taken a shine to him. Jealous? She is far closer to his age than you.”

The door opened again and Morgan walked in. “So?” she said. “What are we in here gossiping about?”

“Derek,” Peta said quickly.

“So it’s true? He really cheated on you?”

I nodded and she hugged me tightly. “Arsehole. Why didn’t you tell me? You know Mum’s not going to drop it, don’t you? In her eyes, you’re bound to that man for life.”

“Why would she change now?” I asked wryly.

Morgan sighed. “That workmate of yours though.”

“What about him?” I swallowed the nervous lump in the back of my throat.

“I’m afraid Madi is going to start dancing on the table in order to get him to notice her. Should I be worried? How old is he, anyway?”

“Twenty-one,” I replied.

Peta snorted. “Sorry,” she said, covering her smile. “I just didn’t realise he was that young. I mean, I hired the guy, I knew he was that young, I had just forgotten for a moment. He’s harmless enough though,” she assured Morgan and smirked at me behind her back. “I’ve heard he’s into older ladies.” I shot her a death glare and she laughed. “He’s probably more into you than your daughter.”

“A woman can dream.” Morgan sighed again.

“Morgan!” I exclaimed.

“What?” she said. “There’s no harm in looking, or dreaming, or perhaps…” Her smile turned wicked and the temperature of my blood rose as I imagined the things she was thinking.

“I’ve heard enough,” I said, pushing open the door.

“Oh come on, L. Where’s your sense of humour? You can’t tell me you hadn’t noticed. I’ve seen the way you look at him!” she yelled at me as the door swung shut.

Madi and Gabe were the only ones to order dessert.

“Oh to be young again,” Mother said and looked longingly at the cheesecake Madi was devouring.

Madi pushed the plate across the table. “You want some, Gran?”

Mother shook her head violently. “You know what they say, Madi. A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips. Isn’t that right, dear?” She looked at me pointedly. “Maybe if you had spent a little less time enjoying those moments, Derek would still be here with us.”

Gabe choked on his sticky date pudding. He shot me an incredulous look and reached down to squeeze the flesh of my thigh. Madi was watching him and her eyes narrowed before turning back to my mother.

“I think Aunty L looks fantastic and Uncle Derek must have been smoking something wacky to leave her.”

Mother’s eyebrows just about clean shot off her head. “And what would you know about such wacky stuff, Madison Grace Wright?”

She grinned. “Oh you know, just what I’ve overheard the kids saying at school. First hand, I wouldn’t have the slightest clue.”

Gabe’s thigh was pressed against mine and I felt him tense up. His face went red, he pushed his dessert away and cleared his throat. “Maybe we best get going,” he said.

Dad stood up. “Best suggestion I’ve heard all night.”